


Million Reasons

by thinmint_writer



Series: Iron Widow [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Apologies, Avengers - Freeform, Black Widow - Freeform, Captain America - Freeform, Fluff, Hawkeye - Freeform, I think that's all of them - Freeform, I think that's it - Freeform, Injury, Iron Man - Freeform, IronWidow - Freeform, Marital Issues, Marvel - Freeform, Natasha and Tony are married, Other, Scarlet Witch - Freeform, Tony gets hurt, Vision - Freeform, argument, but the avengers don't know his identity, falcon - Freeform, flangst, implied Steve/Sam - Freeform, married, mcu - Freeform, natasha and tony are fighting, natasha worries about him, some spider-man, sorry - Freeform, war machine, yes Steve and Sam are a couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 07:38:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19044082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinmint_writer/pseuds/thinmint_writer
Summary: “But… you asked me why I stay with you through all of it. I didn’t really have an answer at the time. I guess that’s why I left when I did. Now I have one.”---In which Natasha and Tony fight and they both say things they regret, but when one of them is injured on a mission they learn how to look past their differences.





	Million Reasons

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT!!
> 
> Alright, so Spider-Man is in this story, but the Avengers don't know his secret identity.
> 
> Nat has her Endgame hair because I like it best (red and gold for Tony, obviously).
> 
> ALSO Steve and Sam are totally a couple in this, but since it's really just implied, you could just imagine them as best friends if you don't ship it? Honestly, it's not my favorite ship but I figured why the heck not.
> 
> I now give you more IronWidow, because I really am obsessed.

“What makes you tick?” Tony asked aloud, to no one in particular as he sat at the table in his lab, fiddling with a broken engine.

Suddenly, he heard the door open behind him and the familiar patting of socked feet against the hard floor of his lab. “Tones?” Natasha began, watching him work. “It’s almost two in the morning. You haven’t slept in days…”

He huffed a little and sat up, wiping his greasy hands on an already dirty rag in front of him. “Oh, yeah Tash,” he muttered, turning to look at his wife. “Give me another little while?”

She looked at him skeptically, knowing ‘another little while’ meant at least a few hours. “Tony, you need to rest.”

Though he was exhausted, he shot her an angry glare. “I’m fine, Natasha.”

“No, you’re not. You need to sleep. Eat.” He didn’t say anything. “God, do you have to be so stubborn all of the time?” She reached up and rubbed her temple, completely exasperated with her husband.

It’s not that they had marital issues; their marriage was great. But sometimes… sometimes they both get on each other’s nerves a little too much. When this happens they fight, and then they usually make up a day or so later and go on their merry way.

Recently though… recently they had really been getting on each other’s nerves. They were fighting a little more often and taking a little longer to make up. Neither of them could tell you why; it seems they were just going through a rough patch. They weren’t worried, every marriage has it’s issues. Still…

“I’m not stubborn,” her husband defended, turning back to his work. The red-and-gold-haired woman stood there, tapping her foot a little out of anger and waiting for him to revert his focus to their conversation. He did not.

Natasha let off an annoyed sigh. “Is it so hard for you to just pay attention to what I’m saying? Or to admit that you’re not always in the right?” He didn’t move, ignoring her, and continued on with his work. “Can you just come to bed, Tones? Like a normal f*cking human.”

“Leave me alone, Tash,” he grumbled, still not looking away from the engine.

“No, I won’t leave you alone. Because I f*cking care about you and this isn’t f*cking healthy! You need to sleep. You need to eat. You need to listen to me!”

Finally, he turned back to look at her. “And what happened to ‘for better and for worse?’”

“I’m trying to prevent the ‘worse,’” she retorted, looking at him angrily. “Is it so hard for you to accept that as your wife I feel obligated to make sure you don’t f*cking pass out from exhaustion?” She groaned, running her fingers through her hair as a few strips fell over her vision. “I hate when you get like this.”

“Well if you hate it so much, why don’t you just leave me?” He said it stone-faced, in a way that almost made Natasha regret ever coming down. “Why do you even stay with me if you hate me so damn much? Just leave me, and let me work in f*cking peace.”

The red-and-gold-haired woman stood there for a moment, fuming, before she spoke. “Fine, you want me to leave so bad, I’ll leave. Don’t expect me to come back.” With that, she left his lab.

Instead of returning to the penthouse, which is where she and Tony lived, the ex-spy went to the floor shared by Steve and Sam; two of her closest friends. When the elevator opened on their floor, she was half-surprised to find the both of them curled up together on one of the couches in their common room, watching a movie. Both of the men looked up drowsily as she entered.

“What’s wrong, Nat?” Steve asked, knowing something must be wrong in order for the woman to pay them a visit so early in the morning.

“Can I crash here tonight?” she asked the both of them. Without another question, both men nodded yes; they knew that the couple was going through a rough patch, and it wasn’t the first time she’d needed to stay away from the penthouse.

Sam nodded towards the other couch, and Natasha sank into the cushions. Tired, she leaned her head back and drifted off the sleep quickly, despite the action movie playing in the background.

\---

Despite the fact that the Avengers each paired up and have their own floors in the tower, they all eat meals together in the penthouse kitchen; it was the largest, and they enjoyed dining together.

That morning at breakfast, Natasha went through her usual routine; she sat at the table and read whatever book she was currently reading while eating yogurt and granola. Also like usual, Tony came upstairs, poured himself a coffee, then made his way back to his lab. The only thing that alerted the rest of the Avengers that anything out of the ordinary had happened was the fact that, unlike usual, Natasha didn’t look up and flash her husband a smile as he entered. Tony didn’t lean down to give him wife a quick kiss as he made his way back to the lab. In fact, they didn’t acknowledge one another at all.

No one said anything though; if either one of them wanted to talk they would talk. Besides, no one wants to run the risk of getting an ex-assassin nor a billionaire genius upset. So, with nothing more than a few raised eyebrows, no one else did anything out of the ordinary either.

\---

In fact, everything continued on almost as normal.

That is, until afternoon. Around three in the afternoon, the Avengers were called to a mission; all of them. Suiting up quickly, they hopped in a quinjet and rushed to the scene (except for Tony; he flew in his suit).

When they arrived in downtown Queens, they saw what awaited them; six large, mutant lizards were on a rampage, terrifying and threatening civilians in the area. Spider-Man was already on the scene, swinging around and trying to get the antidote he created to as many as he could; unfortunately, one versus six wasn’t working so well for him, and he hadn’t made any progress.

Landing a small distance away from the scene, the Avengers exited the quinjet and readied to fight. Vision, Falcon, Iron Man, and War Machine took to the skies, closely followed by Scarlet Witch as she shot through the air towards the commotion. Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye took off running to aid the spandex-clad hero in his work on the ground.

“Oh thank God,” Spider-Man gasped upon noticing their arrival. Despite their many attempts to recruit him to the team and/or find out who was behind the mask, the hero remained adamant that hiss identity would remain a secret. All the Avengers knew for sure was that he was young; how young, he wouldn’t say, but young. “You guys are finally here.”

“How long have you been at it, kid?” Sam asked, and though Spider-Man didn’t wear a comm, he heard.

“Fifteen minutes,” the red-and-blue clad hero reported. Clearly, this would not be an easy fight.

And, as expected, it was not. After another brutal half-hour and a buttload of team effort (while trying not to hurt any of the creatures), all six of them were finally sedated and returned back to their normal forms. That left several dazed and frightened humans waiting to be taken into temporary custody for evaluation.

The Avengers all approached Spider-Man after the fight, a few of them shaking hands with the guy as they prepared to leave.

“You sure you don’t want to take us up on that offer?” Rhodey asked the kid. “Always room on the team.”

“Nah, I’m good,” the spandex-wearing kid chuckled. “I’ve got some business to attend to anyways. Gotta find out who sent these guys. Always a new enemy; gotta keep looking out for the little guy.”

Sam laughed and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Okay then, Spider-Boy. You know how to contact us if you need us.” Spider-Man nodded. “We’ll leave you to it then.”

With that, the Avengers began heading back to their quinjet as the Stark Relief Foundation arrived for cleanup of the partly-destroyed city block. Suddenly, Natasha noticed something. “Where’s Tony?”

“Tony?” Steve asked into his comms. “You already headed back to the tower?” No answer. “Tony?”

Natasha cleared her throat and sternly said; “Tony, I swear to God give us an answer.” Once again, silence. “Tony?”

They all looked around, slightly alarmed. “Alright, everybody spread out,” Rhodey instructed, losing no time as they began to search the surrounding area for their teammate. “Let’s find our guy.”

\---

Hours later, Natasha sat in a hard, blue plastic chair. Her elbows were propped up on the hospital bed in front of her, and her head was leaning against her folded hands, eyes closed. In the bed was her husband.

A few tears dripped silently down the red-and-gold-haired woman’s face as the sat there, in silence. The others were in the waiting room.

By the time they had found Tony, the damage had been done. At some point during the fight he had been thrown and knocked out. A few pieces of his armor had been ripped off during the fight, including his helmet, and a car then landed on top of him. To put it nicely, he’d been destroyed; badly. Luckily, his injuries only included a few bruised ribs and a black eye. Of course, given the fact that he was also exhausted and dehydrated and hadn’t eaten in a day, he’d been out of it since they found him.

Despite knowing that he wasn’t seriously injured, Natasha couldn’t help but cry. Maybe it was because for a few minutes, she thought she had lost him. For a few minutes, she thought the last thing she would ever get to say to him would be ‘don’t expect me to come back.’ She thought their last moments together would have been spent arguing. She didn’t want that.

Wiping her tears on her sleeve and sniffling a little, Natasha opened her eyes and looked at her husband where he lay.

“Just like you to pull something like this,” she whispered, half to herself with a sad chuckle. “Get yourself all injured and make me worry about you again. For someone that wants to be left alone to badly, you sure are awful at taking care of yourself.”

Slowly, she re-situated and sat back in her seat, allowing herself to slouch a little and tapping her foot quietly. She hadn’t got home yet, so she was still dressed in her catsuit; her guns, knives, widow bites, and other assorted weapons had been removed from her person and were resting on a small wooden table beside the bed.

“You really scared me today,” she continued as she examined Tony’s bruised face. “I thought… well, I don’t know what I thought.” Natasha took a deep, shuddering breath before settling back down. “I thought I’d lost you. I thought I’d never get to say goodbye to you.”

Another tear dripped down her face, and she quickly wiped it away. “I can’t stop thinking about last night. About the things you said… the things I said. I just keep hearing those words over and over again.” She knew he couldn’t hear her; he wasn’t in a coma, he was just unconscious.

“But…” she dragged slowly, leaning her head back and looking at the ceiling. “you asked me why I stay with you through all of it…” With a sigh, the ex-spy ran her fingers through her messy hair, pulling through a few tangles. “I didn’t really have an answer at the time. I guess that’s why I left when I did. Now I have one. Do you want to know?”

She didn’t get an answer. Then again, she didn’t expect one either.

“I know… I have about a million reasons to leave. To walk right out of this hospital room, pack up my things, and join Wanda on her floor; maybe even get my own place. Right here, right now. If I wanted to, I could leave you here alone and unconscious; you might not still be unconscious if you bothered to listen to what I say. God, you drive me crazy sometimes…”

Natasha crossed her arms over her chest before she continued. “I could forget about you and move on. Make you hurt the way I hurt when I have to see you like… this. When I thought I wouldn’t get to say goodbye.” She paused again and let her eyes linger on his face another time. “But I don’t want to.”

A small, half-hearted chuckle escaped her lips as she pulled her hair over her shoulder. “Sometimes… you frustrate me so much. Sometimes I kind of want to bash your brains in. And yet somehow…” With a small sigh, the smile left her face. “Somehow I still love you. I’m so f*cking in love with you, Tony Stark. Maybe we don’t say that often enough anymore; maybe that’s our problem. But I’m so f*cking in love with you.”

She let out yet another soft laugh as she looked around the room, then out the small window at the busy hallway of the hospital. “Yeah, I could list off all of the reasons that I want to leave. Make a mile-long scroll with each one writen out to perfection. But I have one… really good reason to stay. No matter what happens, it outweighs all of them. I love you.”

She groaned and planted her face in her palms. “You have no idea how glad I am you can’t hear this; I would never live it down. Recently we just… we can’t seem to get along. We just stay at odds and ends with one another and one of us cracks. Really, I… I just want you to be okay. The habits you keep aren’t healthy, and I know I promised to be there ‘in sickness and in health’ and all that sh*t, but really. I’m trying really hard not to pummel you to death when you pull stunts like you did last night. Sometimes I’m gonna need you to work with me.”

She uncrossed her arms and leaned forward again, this time propping her elbows on her knees. “What happened to us? We used to get along so damn well… our arguments lasted a day at most and we never just… ignored one another like we do now. When did this become us? When did we become ‘that’ couple; the one that can never get along and is just… always bickering. Is there no way to get back to the way we were? I remember when we met…”

\---

At some time during the night, Natasha had stopped talking and just sort of sat there, watching her husband sleep as fluids and nutrients were pumped into his system. At around nine, Wanda popped into the room to let her know that the rest of them were going to head back to the tower. The ex-spy only nodded, and then the younger woman closed the door back and left. She’s not sure when, but eventually Natasha drifted off to sleep in the uncomfortable chair.

When she woke up, someone was poking her lightly in the arm. “Tasha,” she heard whispered as she blinked awake. “Natasha. Nat. Wake up.” As she opened her eyes, her vision went blurry when it was confronted with the fluorescent lights of the room. Once she adjusted, the saw that it was Tony.

He was sitting awake in his bed, leaned over slightly in order to wake her up. When he saw that his wife had woken, he returned back to his upright position, sitting normally and almost casually.

“You’re here?” He said it almost like a question; like he didn’t think she would be there.

Natasha nodded. “Of course. ‘For better and for worse’ right?” He returned the nod and Natasha let out a dry laugh. “God, you can’t f*cking do that Tony. You can’t get knocked out during a fight and not answer your comms and just…” she paused to take a breath. “You can’t do that.”

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“You should be.” She stood up and began pacing as she spoke, flailing her arms around slightly. “Do you know how worried I was? You just up and disappeared, and your armor f*cking started to come apart! A car was thrown on top of you! I nearly had—”

“No,” the billionaire interrupted, looking at her and grabbing her moving hand. “I’m sorry about the other night. About… what I said.” He looked up into her eyes, and her face was slightly confused. “I’m a real idot sometimes—”

“I already knew that much,” his wife cut in.

Tony sighed before he finished his statement. “But I don’t want you to leave, Natasha. If you leave… honestly I don’t know what would happen to me.”

She looked at him a moment before falling back into her seat. “You’d die.” She said it with such simplicity, but they both knew his self-destructive tendencies. “You probably wouldn’t’ve had to stay in this god-awful place if you had listened to me. You need to rest. And eat food. And drink water.”

He let out a small laugh, a bit pained because of his ribs. “And that’s why I need you. We both know I’m not going to remember all that on my own.”

“For a genius, you sure are stupid.”

“I know that too,” Tony sighed. “Don’t tell the team I admitted it.” Natasha chuckled at his incessant humor. “But really, Tasha. I’m sorry.”

She looked at him and leaned over, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comment your thoughts! Good or bad, I like to hear from you guys.


End file.
